 |
| ¡hola from bartolomé! |
All good things must come to an end. My month in the Galapagos is over. It is bittersweet to leave but so good to be home. I missed my family but I am already missing my Galapagos family. It is amazing how close you can get to complete strangers when forced to share a space with them for a month. Our last week went by insanely fast. A few of us rented bikes and headed out of town to climb Cerro Mesa one day. We were rewarded with an incredible view, free mandarines and bananas from some local strangers, along with a hike through South America's 2nd largest lava tunnel. Later in the week we visited a beach on Santa Cruz for snorkeling with sea turtles and sharks and a walk around the island of North Seymour. This island is the nesting site for thousands of birds, including frigates and blue-footed boobies. It was such a spectacular site to witness these creatures up close- to see their mating dances, eggs, babies, and flying overhead so close you could touch them. Our last excursion was Bartolomé, where the snorkeling and views were some of the best in the Galapagos. We saw sharks, penguins, and sea lions, not to mention giant parrot fish and huge schools of angel fish. On our last day in Puerto Ayora, it turned out to be International Surfing Day and some of us happened across the Santa Cruz surfing club. We ended up participating with them in a paddle around the bay, most of them on surfboards and us in kayaks. We helped pick up trash and celebrated as a community committed to keeping the Galapagos clean. I personally took no photos that day but I nearly cried as one of their leaders, an old surfer named Juan Carlos told me that they loved us and thanked us for being with them that day. It was the last day of our month living there and I finally felt like a Galapagos native. What a perfect way to end an experience of a lifetime.
I'd like to reiterate that this trip was all possible because of the support from my family, my school, and the Gilman Scholarship program. This journey was so much more than a study abroad adventure. It feels like a starting point for the rest of my life and I'll never be quite the same.
¡Gracias por todo, Galapagos! Te amo.
around puerto ayora
 |
| the lagoon |
 |
| the best bakery in town |
 |
| cactus flower |
cerro mesa
 |
| bananas! |
 |
| bamboo |
 |
| christine shaking an orange tree. it was shortly after this that a man came down his driveway and handed us a bag of mandarines. |
 |
| the view from atop cerro mesa |
 |
| wild tortoise |
 |
| galapagos dove |
 |
| the island's largest crater |
 |
| lichens |
 |
| headed to the tunnel. check out those croton plants! |
 |
| christine going in |
 |
| this way |
north seymour
 |
| boobies |
 |
| frigate |
 |
| huge land iguana. luckily there was a cactus fruit between us. |
 |
| mama and baby frigate! |
 |
| male frigate |
 |
| booby and eggs |
 |
| frigate and lumpy sock baby |
 |
| snowman frigate |
 |
| booby |
 |
| frigate |
 |
| male frigate |
 |
| blue-footed booby mating dance |
 |
| 3 strange things- pedicure, zorro tan, sprained ankle |
bartolomé
 |
| daphne major |
 |
| our captain, marlon "like marlon brando" |
 |
| got to snorkel around pinnacle rock |
 |
| hawk, chillin on the beach |
from the plane
 |
| the andes mountains |
